MOUNT VERNON — Mount Vernon City Council members authorized the safety-service director to bid and contract for a city parks master plan at a cost not to exceed $50,000. The money will come from the engineering department budget.
Councilman Tanner Salyers, chairman of the Parks and Lands Committee, said that discussions about park utilization and proposed ideas, such as a dog park and pickle ball expansion, began last fall.
“At that point, we decided we needed to invest in this strategic planning,” he told council during Monday’s committee meeting.
Safety-service Director Richard Dzik said that many of the parks were built years ago. Much of the equipment is either the original equipment or has been repaired. The goal of a master plan is to “build an asset list for our parks.”
“We want to start figuring out for each park what’s there, what’s needed, and what needs to be fixed and replaced,” he said.
In addition to evaluating playground equipment, the consultants will consider concession stands, skate parks, year-round restrooms, parking lots, paving vs gravel, a good location for a dog park, food truck locations, connections to the bike trails, WiFi, E-charging stations, and stormwater drainage, among other things.
Dzik said this year’s focus will be Memorial Park and Riverside Park. If the consultants finish plans for those two parks and are under the $50,000 figure, they will move on to other parks.
Dzik said that because many of the potential upgrades involve engineering, the consultant money will come out of engineering’s contract services account. The goal is to invest a little bit each year until all of the parks are covered.
“We are hoping within a few months over the summer so that by budget time, we know what we need to budget for next year,” he said regarding how long the analysis will take.
Responding to a question about an idea broached years ago of building a larger sports complex somewhere in the city, Dzik said, “I think we need to invest in existing parks over the next 10 years rather than expand.”
Council waived the three readings on the legislation and approved it as an emergency.
Council members also waived the three readings and authorized Auditor Terry Scott to purchase a software upgrade for the city’s finance and payroll packages. The initial cost was $95,065. However, by placing the order before March 31, the city will get a 21% discount and pay $75,457.
The packages have had only one major upgrade since the city purchased them in 1985. The finance package was updated in 1996, the payroll package in 1997.
Scott said the city will implement the finance package this year and the payroll package in 2022.
An ordinance setting council members’ compensation at $8,378 for 2022-23 received a second reading. During a Community and Employee Relations Committee meeting, Scott explained that due to changes in the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, council members are not making enough each month to be credited with a full year of service for retirement purposes.
Since 2011, council members’ compensation has been $8,378 a year. That is what Ordinance 2021-09 proposes for 2022 and 2023. Because there are 26 pay periods, the calculations work out to council members receiving $645 a month.
To earn full-time service credit, they must earn $684.86 a month in 2021. That will increase to $696.84 and $709.03 in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
The same scenario holds true for the city treasurer’s $8,888 annual compensation. Scott will bring updated numbers to the next meeting as to what the compensation must be to meet the full-time service requirement.
Council also took the following actions:
- Adopted a Complete Streets policy
- Approved supplemental appropriations, bill payments, and participation in the Ohio Department of Transportation’s cooperative buying program for road salt
- Reappointed Ernest “EJ” Pido to the Knox County General Health District
- Amended a grievance agreement with Mount Vernon firefighters and paramedics relating to continuing sick leave for COVID-19
- Approved a compensation change from full-time to part-time status for an administrative assistant in the probation department
- Gave a first reading to an ordinance updating the city’s codified ordinances
- Gave a first reading to an ordinance vacating a portion of Kirk Street
- Postponed indefinitely an ordinance changing the composition of the Patriotic and Memorial Committee
Planning and Zoning
Greg Bemiller, property maintenance enforcement officer, updated council on activities for 2020. He noted the number of overall violations decreased 3%. Notably, vacant property violations decreased 55%. Owner-occupied violations increased 12%.
Grass/weed violations declined 10% and trash/furniture violations decreased 23%.
The city remedied 24 violations: three for tenant occupied, eight (all grass/weeds) for owner-occupied, and 13 for vacant properties. Abandoned properties, a new category for 2020, saw 30 violations remedied by the city, all grass/weeds.
Bemiller noted that one house on High Street was rehabbed and sold; another is almost ready for sale.
“Those were properties that were problems for me,” he said.
Bemiller said he is spending a lot more time on zoning violations now that the city has fines for projects not finished within the allotted time.
“I’m concentrating more heavily to find things earlier, or at least get people more educated,” he said.
If the city incurs cost to clean up or maintain nuisance properties, or fines go unpaid, the city places a lien on the property. If the house sells, the city recoups the money. In 2020, the city recovered $18,802 from liens.
“That goes a long way to helping cover the $13,000 I have in my budget for maintenance,” said Bemiller.
Auditor Scott said that thus far in 2021, the city has recovered $17,810.
